(Spirit Lake)– Plans to build a 50 million gallon ethanol plant west of Superior have received the final approvals from the county.
With two members absent, the county’s Board of Adjustment voted three-to-nothing Monday evening to grant a conditional use permit and a variance.
A new issue that hadn’t surfaced previously came up during discussion of the Conditional Use Permit. Board member Jeff Ashland was concerned over what would happen if the plant should eventually go under financially and be abandoned. He and chairman Don Oleson called for a stipulation that would require the owner dismantle the plant in a certain timeframe of it being out of use. After considerable discussion, the provision was dropped. But another provision requires the owner to come back for another variance if the plant is ever used to produce anything other than ethanol or ethanol-related products.
Even though the proposed plant now has all the county permits it needs, Peterson says the next step is to obtain the necessary state and federal permits along with lining up financing and putting a final design together.
Peterson wouldn’t give a specific timeframe as to when construction could actually start.
The proposed plant would produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a year using 18 and-a-half million bushels of corn. Peterson says the plant would bring an additional seven and-a-half to 10 million dollars in property value to the county and would employ 30 to 35 people with a payroll of 1.6 million dollars.
He also addressed concern over infrastructure, saying roads in that area already adequate to handle the expected truck traffic. Peterson says a natural gas main will have capacity to meet the plant’s demands, and that the plant will have it’s own well for water along with it’s own wastewater system. He added the plant will be designed to have it’s own fire protection.
The variance that was approved Monday evening is for a 135-foot tall smokestack for the plant.
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